Ziwaphi Relentless quest for the truth
Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza suffered a setback in his R10 million law suit against businessman Mathews Phosa after a judge at the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria ruled that evidence from one of Mabuza’s witnesses be expunged from the court record.
Judge Bill Prinsloo made the ruling following an application by Phosa’s lawyer, Advocate Mike Maritz (SC), that the evidence of Marcia Khoza be regarded inadmissible as it had no link to the matter in which Mabuza is suing Phosa.
Prinsloo had on Wednesday overruled Maritz’s objection that Khoza’s testimony amounted to new evidence.
Khoza is the daughter of the late African National Congress (ANC) activist, Portia Shabangu, who was killed by convicted apartheid hit squad leader Eugene De Kok.
De Kok was released from prison on parole in 2015.
When Khoza met with her mother’s killer, De Kok, for the first time in prison in 2012, she told the media that he had admitted finishing off his mother by shooting her twice in the head, after she had survived an ambush on their vehicle in Swaziland in 1989.
Maritz argued that Khoza’s testimony prejudiced Phosa as it amounted to entirely new evidence that the defendant had no prior disclosure to.
In his ruling, Prinsloo concurred with Maritz’s application.
“I have come to the conclusion that the objection ought to be upheld, and evidence quoted, dealing with the allegation that the defendant said that the plaintiff was part of the killing of Ms Shabangu be struck off,” said Prinsloo in his ruling.
During her 15-minute testimony on Wednesday, Khoza had testified that Phosa had told her that Mabuza was part of the people who had killed her mother.
But her testimony will no longer form part of the court record.
“Objection is upheld. The evidence of Ms Khoza, dealing with the alleged statement by the defendant, is struck from the record,” said Prinsloo.
